Faced with dwindling resources and warring tribes, the colony on Roanoke Island begins to crumble while one young housekeeper commits herself to recording her every memory of the Lost Colony.

 

In 1587, the 118 men, women, and children of the “Lost Colony” were abandoned by their governor on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and never heard from again.

In this fictional journal, Emme Merrimoth, one of the real colonists of Roanoke, recounts the harrowing journey that brought the colonists to the New World, and what may have happened to them once they got there. Emme joins the colony as a servant and future nursemaid, but during the voyage, Emme becomes involved with Governor John White, who reassigns her to his household and then asks her to marry him. With no better prospects and happy to be free of her bland former employers, Emme agrees.

But once on Roanoke, the colonists restore the village abandoned by former colonists and realize, when faced with hostile natives, that they have been misled by White. The colonists plead with White to return to England to bring back much-needed supplies, but White instead flees without any intention of returning, leaving the colonists to fare on their own.

Emme, due to a scandalous past, is accused of witchcraft, shunned by the colonists, and enslaved by a nearby tribe. But throughout these dramatic turn of events, Emme commits herself to putting down on paper every memory of the Lost Colony.